http://pcdd.org

To encourage women to participate and run as candidates in the lead up to a potential national election in Lebanon in 2013.

To motivate women to raise their voice and demand fair representation in the Parliament.

To raise awareness on the laws that discriminates against women and emphasize the importance of legislative reform.

Our approach, implemented under the "Eye on My municipality" project funded by MEPI (US-Middle East Partnership Initiative), engaged both men and women on the issue of women's increased political participation and ways to achieve this in Lebanon. This took shape in a series of workshops conducted

nationwide, which created a shared forum amongst citizens to discuss women's political participation in an open forum. The workshops occurred in northern, southern and Bekaa regions of Lebanon, which was dicult at the time due the increased security tensions.

None the less PCDD was able to facilitate a lively and engaged discussion amongst the participants with a diversity of views shared. PCDD facilitated the series of workshops through the following activities:
1. Sessions began with a 2-minute Vox Pop film, where we asked local community members what they thought about women political candidates and whether they would vote for them and why

2. This was followed by a facilitated discussion with participants about the views presented in the film and their perspectives

3. Our staff outlined the need for a women's quota and further described the need for such electoral reforms to ensure woman's political representation

4. Workshops were conducted with numerous members of established political parties and PCDD used this as an opportunity to encourage them to select and support woman candidates

More than 220 participants attended conducted nationwide, this was notable given the critical security situation in Lebanon at the time and the political sensitivity of women's political empowerment